force a CD boot?

[killercoder]

So here is my problem so I want to run knoppix but automatically boots to HD and no I can't change the boot order in the bios is ther anyway I can force a cd boot?

[fingers99]

automatically boots to HD and no I can't change the boot order in the bios is ther anyway I can force a cd boot?

OK, you can't change the boot order. But can you select a single boot device? (By the way, if not, why not?).

If you can't select to boot from CD or floppy I can think of only two strategies to try:

1. Remove the HD

2. Appeal to your systems administrator.

[Harry Kuhman]

If you can't select to boot from CD or floppy I can think of only two strategies ......
There are other less drastic things. What make and model computer is it? Can it boot from a floppy? If you really can only boot from the hard drive (I never saw a computer that couldn't be set to boot from the floppy first though), and the computer is so old that it can't boot from CD, you can still take control of this though. Install Smart Boot Manager on the hard disk MBR or install XOSL in it's own small partition. With either of these boot managers the system will boot from the hard drive and bring up a menu, letting you boot from a hard drive partition (one or more OSs on the hard drive), a floppy, a CD, and so on. I like XOSL better, it's a little more complex but much nicer looking and more rich in features. SBM is tiny and easy to set up, not as nice looking as XOSL and lacks some of the features but either will install on a computer and let you boot a CD where you could not before. And if you can boot a floppy you can make a SBM floppy and try it from floppy without ever installing it on the hard drive.

Isn't that better than removing the hard drive?